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Azerbaijan: Debating GONGO vs. NGO

Nov 4, 2014

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) meets with Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, during a parliamentary assembly session in June 2014. The two leaders recently agreed on the resumption of negotiations between civil society groups and the Azeri government in the form of a Joint Working Group on human rights. (Photo: Sandro Weltin/Council of Europe)

Azerbaijan’s efforts to use its energy wealth to win friends and influence opinion in the United States and European Union are well documented. Far less attention has been paid to Baku’s suspected efforts aimed at co-opting rights advocates inside Azerbaijan.

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The seven civil-society representatives on the Joint Working Group are: Gahramanli of the Committee for the Defense of Oil Workers’ Rights; Arzu Abdullayeva of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, Azerbaijan National Committee; Saadat Bananyarli of the Azerbaijani section of the International Organization on Human Rights; Saida Gojamanli of the Human Rights and Legislation Protection Bureau; Novella Jafaroglu of the Dilara Aliyeva Society for Protection of Women Rights; and Zaliha Tahirova and Eldar Zeynalov, both of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan: Debating GONGO vs. NGO

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) meets with Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, during a parliamentary assembly session in June 2014. The two leaders recently agreed on the resumption of negotiations between civil society groups and the Azeri government in the form of a Joint Working Group on human rights. (Photo: Sandro Weltin/Council of Europe)